Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad (KTJ) is a relatively small Uzbek group operating mainly in Aleppo province. The group was formerly an Uzbek jamaat within the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda's official branch in Syria. However, sometime in late 2014, the group split with Al Nusrah to become its own group. Despite splitting with Al Nusrah, the two groups enjoy close cooperation. KTJ also enjoys close cooperation with the Imam Bukhari Jamaat.

Imam Bukhari Jamaat, which is the largest Uzbek group in Syria, is a close ally to Al Nusrah and the Chechen-led Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar (JMA). Imam Bukhari Jamaat is one of the few groups in Syria that has its bayah (allegiance) to Mullah Omar of the Taliban (the other group is likely the Turkestan Islamic Party in Syria).

In this video, Abu Saloh makes two appearances. The first appearance is near the beginning of the video, which appears to show Abu Saloh taking part in the planning stages of the attacks. The second appearance is actually from a KTJ video. The video, which was originally uploaded by KTJ's official YouTube channel, was put into the Imam Bukhari video. The short clip just shows Abu Saloh showing off several weapons captured from regime forces in al Misat.

This is not the first time Abu Saloh has appeared in an Imam Bukhari video. On Jan. 20, Abu Saloh appeared in an Imam Bukhari video showing its efforts in the battles in Zahra and Nubl. I noted back then that this likely represents that Abu Saloh's KTJ works closely with Imam Bukhari. Recent events on the ground and subsequently shown in social media accounts corroborate this hypothesis. The most recent video only further highlights this. The fact that the two operate side by side should be no surprise as both are Uzbek groups that share the same areas of operation. Not only that, but Abu Saloh used to be part of Al Nusrah, which is a key ally for Imam Bukhari.

Still from a video released by Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad showing weapons captured during the fighting at al Misat in Aleppo.

In the last few days, the Assad regime lost several fighters during the battle for Al Misat in Aleppo province. Several jihadist organizations took part in this assault, including the Al Nusrah Front, Imam Bukhari Jamaat, Jabhat Ansar al Din, and Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad.

Furthermore, based on pictures released by these respective groups, it can be determined that Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad maintains a very close relationship with Al Nusrah, as well as Imam Bukhari Jamaat. This comes after the Katibat broke away from Nusrah after undisclosed reasons to form its own independent group. It should come as no surprise that Katibat, an Uzbek group, is working with Imam Bukhari Jamaat, which is the largest Uzbek group in Syria. I first speculated this in my initial report on Katibat here.

Take a very close look at the photo above. Those same weapons are seen in a picture released by Sayfullah Shishani's Jamaat, which is a Chechen faction of the Al Nusrah Front (al Qaeda in Syria).

Photo released by Sayfullah Shishani's Jamaat showing the same weapons.

Additionally, Imam Bukhari Jamaat has also released a picture showing the same weapons. The group has also published several pictures on its site. One picture includes Katibat's emir, Abu Saloh. This image is similar to what was shown in Katibat's video, which indicates that Imam Bukhari fighters were present during the filming of said video. This is also not the first time Abu Saloh has appeared in Imam Bukhari productions. See my initial report of Katibat to read more on him.

These pictures can be seen below. (Note: The picture of the weapons is kind of blurry, but the orange generator is visibly noticeable)

Above: The same weapons can be seen from Imam Bukhari. Below: Abu Saloh can be seen in the middle.

All groups have also publicized the Assad regime soldiers they have captured. However, it is not known if the fighters shown by Sayfullah Shishani's Jamaat, Imam Bukhari, and Katibat are the same. However, Jabhat Ansar al Din has published a video showing a couple fighters they captured during the fight. This group, which is actually a coalition, consists of the Chechen Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar (the Syrian branch of the Caucasus Emirate), the Moroccan Harakat Sham al Islam, and the native Syrian Harakat Fajr al Sham al Islamiya. The video below has the logo of Harakat Fajr al Sham al Islamiya: